Beograd Gazela - Travel Guide to a Slum takes us into a "blank" area in the middle of Europe - in a Roma slum in the center of Belgrade. How does one live without a city infrastructure, without water, without electricity? How do the inhabitants organize themselves and what kind of jobs do they have? What is their situation in regard to health care or the cultivation of their cultural life? The travel guide directs our attention to a place which is paradigmatic for the recent history of Roma in Southeastern Europe. It provides essential information about the social and economic structures of a slum, about the inhabitants and their daily lives and exposes the complex mechanisms of marginalization and discrimination against Roma.

In summer 2005 Eduard Freudmann and Can Gülcü began to visit Gazela regularly, gathering material for the travel guide during several longer stays in Belgrade up to the end of 2007. At the start they interviewed politicians, sociologists, representatives of aid organizations, and representatives of Roma associations. Although these groups provided a precise picture of those structures and mechanism by which the Serbian Roma are pushed to the margin of society, they gave little information about the Belgrade slums or about Gazela itself. Thus the focus was transferred to visiting the settlement itself, in the course of which the extensive interviews with the inhabitants took place that ultimately provided the major foundation for the travel guide.

The travel guide has been published in Romani, Serbian and German language:

Eduard Freudmann researches and intervenes in the intersections of art and politics, power relations and social contexts, history-politics and media mechanisms, strategies of exclusion and the commodification of knowledge. He studied fine arts in Vienna and Weimar and likes to work with narrative formats. Since 2007, Freudmann has been teaching at the Department for Conceptual Art Practices at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he participated in the education protests 2009 as a squatting teacher. He co-initiated "Plattform Geschichtspolitik," an open collective of students, activists and teachers who critically reflect and publicly deal with the institution's participation in colonialism, (Austro-)fascism and Nazism.

Parallax Views on Architecture

Parallax is the displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object caused by a new line of sight. We all use this difference to gain depth perception. Astronomers use it to define the distance and outline of far away objects. Meanwhile Slavoj Zizek argues that the parallax gap causes not only an "epistemological" shift in the subject's point of view, but always reflects an "ontological" shift in the object itself, as subject and object are inherently mediated.

In seeking the oscillation between focus and productive indeterminacy, this year's lecture series at the Institute of Art and Architecture examines the production of space from multiple points of view. And as nearby objects have a larger parallax than distant ones, we invite artists and researchers working in our immediate proximity-artists and researchers within the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna-who look at the subject of architecture and urbanism implicitly or explicitly in their work. As a result the lecture series will offer an array of alternate positions coexisting within the Academy and create a platform for transdisciplinary discussions at the intersection between art and architecture. (Stefan Gruber)

Lectures:15.10. Thomas Freiler, Artist/PhotographerLiving in a Camera

The early beginnings of photography are based on the observation of light and image phenomena in spaces and buildings. The descriptions of these principals remain valid today, even in the age of digital photography. The laws and conditions for the possibility of photography are at the center of Thomas Freiler's artistic work. In his lecture he will reflect on the relation between space and images based on a selection of his works, as well as self-constructed cameras.

Thomas Freiler, born 1962, artist and photographer based in Vienna. Additional to his projects he reads lectures on photography and history of photography and is head of the photographic laboratory at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 2006.

29.10. Anette Baldauf, SociologistConsumed. An Archeology of the Shopping Mall

Once a fantastic city unto itself, the traditional shopping mall is currently vanishing from the US-American landscape. "Dead malls" have started to litter the US-suburbscape, with molding interior, trees and wild dogs taking hold of consumer dreams. As a pioneer of mall development, the Viennese architect Victor Gruen began to promote polyfunctional shopping centers in the late 1930s. But he was not able to realize his vision until the 1950s, when nuclear paranoia, white flight and destabilized gender economies supported the reevaluation of the commercial bunkers as attractive shopping spaces. Today, like no other urban activity, shopping guides Western cities' transition into postindustrialism. How does this heritage of the mall as container and containing institution impact on urban redevelopment projects? Who, or what, is consumed in these variations of public spaces?

Anette Baldauf is a sociologist and cultural critic, who continuously collaborates with artists on questions of public space, consumerism and the economic imaginary. She is currently Professor at the Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies and co-coordinator of the PhD in practice program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

03.12. Sasha Pirker, Artist/FilmmakerThe Future will not be Capitalist

Working in the fields of cinema and installation, Sasha Pirker will give an introduction to her artistic approach. Her architectural explorations of public and private buildings by renowned architects such as Lautner, Schindler and Niemeyer, are not so much portraits, but rather profound dialogues, echo chambers for the inspirational, social and political dimensions of buildings. Starting with a football game, the lecture will reflect on architecture, cinematic space and the perception of space.

Conservation of cultural heritage is an issue which as a concrete task may seem self-evident at first sight in public awareness. Nevertheless, the specific decisions how to preserve directly affect not only the material aspects and physical condition of an object but also its interpretation. In consequence, those who take the decisions take not only the responsibility for its physical stability but also for its appearance, which will affect the appreciation of the object by society as well as by future generations.

In order to comply with this fact, activities of preservation may not lack awareness of the many aspects which have to be taken into account. Conservation-restoration has to be based on the understanding of the appearance, meaning, material composition, and condition of the cultural heritage object as interdependent parameters and their relevance to the decision-making process.